Note 208 — San Agustin’s Letter on the Filipinos

91. Nothing must be taken away from them, or received from them, without paying for it; for they are very poor, and the least thing produces a great want with them. It must be considered that their greatest misery arises from their laziness and rude condition, and that that habit keeps them in its grasp, and they suffer great poverty; for Egestatem operata est manus remissa (Proverbs, x, 4). We must consider also that they support us and that they pay as they are able for our labors. If anything be given to them, let it be purely208 for God’s sake and as an alms, for if it be lent it will be entirely lost, both the merit and the patience209—considering their necessity and not their ingratitude, as a thing ordained by God. Propter miseriam asume pauperem, et propter inopiam eius ne dimitas eum vacuum; et cætera (Ecclesiasticus, xxix, 12).210